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A One-Sided Conversation with a Have

First I couldn’t get anyone to open up about student loans, and now here we are interviewless when it comes to talking with someone who considers themselves well off financially. The woman set to do this interview was an old friend from high school who’d moved to a far off land known as “anywhere past Vegas because that’s far in my book.” She was down to answer the 1 questions I sent over to her, but then life happened – she became a new mom, and from what I know based on TV and movies, a newborn is quite the handful. So I am sitting here wishing her and the baby the best, while figuring out how to go about the following. Without her intake I can only dive into the questions and discuss what I was hoping to learn from her.

We weren’t best friends in high school, so I’m unaware if she grew up with money or was one of those rags to riches tales. I do know she got her college degree and now holds a good job at a great place. Would she attribute her position to her education though rather than a “right place at the right time” sort of thing? A lot of people would say that education is the most important thing when it comes to landing a job that allows for financial security, and some would be right but at the same time – you have to look at the statistics when it comes to college grads struggling to find work. She’s not struggling though, neither when it comes to work or money and that’s why she was set to do this interview. Sadly, I wanted to know what she stressed about if money was not an issue. Growing up in a low income household, and still not rising above that class as an adult – I worry less about my looks and whatnot on a regular basis because figuring out how to pay rent always comes first. Maybe for her, it’s growing her family and now – ensuring that her new little one is safe and sound. Being a parent shifts your mindset, or at least it should (looking at some young parents I know), so right now her mind is likely occupied with parenting.

The idea of money affecting your personality was also on the table. Does having it suddenly change a person, are people with less in the bank lazy and do people tend to hang out with those in their tax bracket more as they get older? For her, the answers may very well be on the opposite end of the spectrum or we may agree. Really quick, I think money does change people. Look at Justin Bieber. Money means power and power goes to your head, no matter who you are. Poor people are not always lazy. Every situation is different and you can’t assume people with less than are working less than you. Often times I will write for 12 hours a day and at the end of the day I have less than those who put in four hours less, but have better gigs. Then there’s the idea of friendship based on income. That’s something we’ll talk about come July, so I don’t want to go into it too deep now – but I did want to hear from a have if she spent a lot of her time socially with have nots.

Finally, it wasn’t mentioned before but what about adapting when you’re well off and then suddenly find yourself with less than you’re used to. While we looked at Bieber for money changing you, think of Jacqueline White in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Losing her fortune just about made her instantly lose her mind, and it is taking her way longer to adjust to having less than, than it did for Kimmy to adjust to the outside world after the bunker. If you have no clue what that means, check out that show on Netflix because it’s amazing. With that, we would’ve gotten my friend’s take on the high and low of being financially well off. Which I think us have nots would say the high would be not stressing over paying for things and having an emergency fund if shit hit the fan. On the flipside – we talked about this yesterday, but the low (in my head ) would be the other everyday stresses that come with the human experience, but people assuming you have no real problems because you have money and never giving sympathy.